Broncos strong safety Mike Adams defends a pass to the Texans’ Owen Daniels during the second quarter Sunday at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. Daniels had three catches for 26 yards, including a 14-yard touchdown from Matt Schaub in the third quarter.

The Broncos entered this past offseason in search of defensive solutions for the questions that came up when opposing offenses spread them out repeatedly down the stretch during the 2011 season.

Those offenses then proceeded to run the ball and throw the ball with too much success.

However, Sunday’s loss to the Texans revealed another dilemma for the local franchise. The Texans didn’t spread the Broncos out. They didn’t make the Broncos used their specialty looks on defense. They didn’t force them to try situational players in matchups against offensive starters.

Instead, the Texans put the Broncos in their base defense and threw the ball with the kind of success rate that will certainly get the attention of those waiting on the schedule.

Texans quarterback Matt Schaub threw four touchdown passes Sunday, all four coming against the Broncos’ base defense. They also went to four different receivers who resided at three different spots on the depth chart — two to wide receivers (Andre Johnson and Kevin Walter), one to tight end Owen Daniel and one to running back Arian Foster.

That’s all kinds of bad news.

Granted, most offenses the Broncos face this season won’t be as balanced or adept at play action as the Texans are. But Houston repeatedly exposed the Broncos’ aggressiveness, perhaps players trying to do a little too much, and used it against them.

The first Texans touchdown, a 60-yard catch-and-run by Johnson, was a classic, old-school Mike Shanahan-special with play action, luring the safeties up with a run look, a slight rollout by Schaub, who then hit Johnson, running across the formation and away from cornerback Tracy Porter.

On the second touchdown, Schaub simply looped the ball over a charging Von Miller to Foster, who beat the outmatched 330-pound Kevin Vickerson to the pylon for the score. On the third, to Walter, Schaub again caught a Broncos defense selling out to the run, with the safeties crashing the line of scrimmage.

And the fourth TD, to the athletic Daniels, had Miller chasing in pass coverage across the formaton, not Miller’s strength in his young career.

Again, not everybody will be able to pull off what the playoff-bound Texans did. However, it’s a certainty others will try to attack the Broncos’ base defense much the same way. Because if the Broncos can’t survive in their base defense, it won’t matter much if they’ve fixed the other parts.

More in Sports

“This is one of the great jobs in all of sports,” Colorado AD RIck George said Sunday. “There's not a better job in America than here in Colorado." Translation: If you’re not here to win championships, pal, don’t join the party.

If recent history is any indication, Helton likely faces an uphill climb to become the first Colorado player inducted into Cooperstown because of the bias that voters tend to hold against hitters who spent their careers playing home games at elevation.

The inspiration for the nickname came from "the outdoors, the sunshine, that feeling you get when you live here in Colorado," Vibes general manager Chris Phillips explained during Monday's name unveiling.

In his long-running role as the Chargers’ yappy quarterback, Rivers is the football villain Denver loves to hate most. On this November afternoon, Rivers inexplicably decided to pick a fight with Harris, the Broncos’ shutdown corner.